mad in pursuit journal

Week 2 of grand jury duty is over. This is the midpoint -- 9 days
down, 9 more to go. We've heard evidence on 45 cases so far. Some are
finished and voted on. Yesterday I spent about 20 minutes signing (as
foreperson) copies of indictments, dismissals, and referrals to lower
courts.

I wish I could talk about all that we've heard and seen but I'm bound
to secrecy forever.

But I will say this. For the first few days, I felt wide-eyed. I
soaked in everything with sharp curiosity. I played with metaphors for
describing what grand juries do.

you begin to project out the consequences of your decisions

Then Thursday came and, after a long day of voting ugly cases, we got
caught up in complicated one that kept us in our windowless room till 6
PM. After a day like that you begin to see how you are screwing with
people's lives and you begin to project out the consequences of your
decisions -- especially if they're wrong.

So Friday I was dragging, fantasizing about taking a bath in a vat of
cosmopolitans and munching from a bottomless bowl of M&Ms.

But on the way home, I was too tired to stop anywhere for M&Ms and a couple glasses of
wine had to substitute for the vat of cosmos. Jim took me out for dinner
and then we watched Katherine Hepburn and Sam Waterston in "The Glass
Menagerie" (not exactly an antidote to misery but very good anyway).

I also managed to have an extended happy hour on Wednesday with a
couple friends. Other than that interlude, I mostly spent time
brainlessly practicing photo retouching skills. I've been ignoring my
ebay business, although sales continue to trickle in from the stock I
have in my store.